Miles Away (Carrion #1)(3)
Giving her a wink, Miles smiled. “Thank you, baby,” Miles cooed as the restaurant staff sang a raucous rendition of “Happy Birthday.” As the tune ended, Miles glanced up at Letty and smiled as he blew out the candle.
“What I was thinkin’ was, after graduation, while you’re in nursing school, I’ll be helping my godfather run the auto shop part time, when I’m not in class. Once we have enough saved up, we can get an apartment near campus.”
Letty looked up at Miles with wide eyes as a smile grew from her lips. She damn near choked on her drink. Setting her glass back down on the table, Letty smiled from ear to ear, letting her excitement be known.
“Well, yeah! Miles, I’m so excited! Princeton. We’re moving up in the world!” Letty gushed as her brain began thinking of all the things they would need to get to make a house of their own. “It’ll be perfect.”
Miles grabbed Letty’s hand and brought her palm to his mouth. Gently he kissed the inside of her hand, his lips grazing against her palm. As quickly as he touched it, he released it. “Of course it will. But eat first. You’ve barely touched your dinner,” Miles urged.
Letty picked up her fork and broke off a piece of her lasagna. Bringing her fork to her mouth, she glanced casually out the front window of the restaurant. A tall, sturdy-looking teenage boy passed by the window, glancing through the pane of the glass. He ran his hand through his wavy black hair, and his gaze seemed to cut right through Letty. She’d recognize his brooding face anywhere.
As Letty swallowed her food, she mentioned, “Hey Miles, Knox is here…”
“Knox?” Miles replied as he pivoted his neck to get a better look out the window. “He said he had shit to do in Jersey. What’s he doing all the way over here?” Miles wondered out loud.
“Damned if I know,” Letty replied as she continued to eye Knox from her table.
Knox disappeared from the window, and Letty wasn’t sure why his presence unsettled her. Knox was Miles’s younger brother and a good friend of hers. Shaking her head as if erasing the negative thoughts from her brain, Letty let the stress roll down off her shoulders. The second she did, a screeching blast howled as the glass of Mi Famiglia’s front window shattered to bits.
“Letty, get down!” Miles screamed as a bullet careened through the restaurant darting right towards him and Letty.
Barely able to process his thoughts, Miles threw himself over the table. He felt the rush of the bullet careen past him as his heart threatened to hammer out of his chest. Miles pulled Letty to the floor, knocking her from her chair. With all his strength, Miles pulled Letty to his chest, the bullet just narrowly missing his skull by a quarter of an inch. Letty’s head crashed upon Miles’s chest as panic flooded her system. Looking up from the floor, Miles saw three familiar faces outside the restaurant. He immediately recognized his brother, Knox, Vic Schiabetta, an associate of his father’s, and the Butcher himself, Michael Capadonno.
“Miles!” Letty screamed from underneath him, unsure whether he was dead or alive. “Miles!”
“Ssshhhh…” Miles urged. He spoke in a whisper, “I’m all right. Be quiet.”
Letty knew that bullet was meant for Miles. Try as much as she might, she couldn’t stop the scream from crying from her mouth.
“Grab my hand,” Miles said in a whisper. “We’ll go out the back. We have to run back to Corina.”
“But she’s seven blocks away!” Letty said.
“Trust me, Letty. Please. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“It’s not me that I’m worried about!” Letty gasped.
Letty’s eyes went wild with panic as she rose to her feet. As the other patrons screamed and rushed out the front door, Letty and Miles rushed for the kitchen door. Giving a glance behind him, Miles’s eyes met with Knox’s, and he rushed through the door of the restaurant’s kitchen with a knot in the pit of his stomach.
“Miles!” Knox called as he raced after his brother.
“Shit…” Miles said as he saw his brother chase after him. “C’mon! Here he comes!”
“Why are we runnin’ from Knox?”
“Because he’s with the guy who just tried to shoot me in the f*ckin’ head! C’mon!”
Tears began to stream down Letty’s face as she gave a look back at Knox. Horror took over Letty’s eyes as her gaze met Knox’s. Shaking his head from side to side, Knox looked at Letty with a look of warning.
“It’s not what you think!” Knox screamed in a desperate voice.
But Miles continued to run, pulling Letty along behind him.
“Keep up, Letty. Come on!” Miles urged.
Letty’s heart beat frantically as she fought to keep up. Giving Knox one last glance behind her, she tried to wrap her head around what was happening, but logic failed her. Knox had always been Miles’s right-hand man. He was his best friend, his brother, and often, his closest confidant. But in that moment, the lines blurred as Knox ran after Miles along with Vic, the triggerman, and Miles’s own father, Michael Capadonno, the Butcher of Carrion.
“Miles, wait!” Knox screamed as his pace quickened. He was catching up and fast. Miles pulled Letty at a faster rate, yanking her arm hard to keep her out of danger. Knox, catching up to his brother, cut into Letty’s stride, knocking her to the floor of the restaurant kitchen. A sauce pan clattered as it hit the floor next to where Letty landed. Looking at Knox with a scathing look upon his face, Miles cut the gap between himself and his brother. He might not have meant to knock Letty to the ground, but it didn’t matter. Reeling his arm back, Miles drilled his fist straight at Knox’s face.